Mobile wireless communication in the form of telephony and data connections has become an essential part of our lives and in many ways replaces the fixed connections we have been used to for the past decades. In some parts of the world people and machines is becoming connected with each other only via mobile solutions and not via fixed connections, such as for instance in developing countries but also to some extent in the developed countries.
Usage of wireless telecommunication networks is increasing dramatically over time and the behaviour changes as we shift the volume of traffic from voice to use of data traffic in the telecommunication networks. This is true both for applications requiring access to packet based networks, such as browsers, email communication, cloud based storage, and so on, and for voice related applications as Voice over IP (VoIP) applications. This increase of data traffic sets up demands on the networks to handle large volumes of data traffic and with an always connected situation our devices are always connected to a packet data network, e.g. the Internet connected to different applications. Because of the limited access to wireless infrastructure, cell congestion, device battery life, and similar resource management issues, there is therefore a need for regulating the amount of data traffic in the networks.
In a roaming scenario, i.e. when the user device (UE) is connected to a network of a network operator different from the one that the user has a subscription with, there is also charging issues to be taken into account. The user does not want to get charged for traffic data that the user is aware of or has initiated. The same applies for situations where the user has a subscription where data traffic costs are incurred based on amount of data transferred.
In 2G/3G/4G networks the UE may be provided with an Internet protocol (IP) address for connection to an IP based network and for sending data and receiving data. In such a scenario downlink data will be directed to the UE from any service located on the packet data network connected to the UE even if the UE is active or inactive.